


A Parent's Wish

by orenjikitty



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: A look into the Amaris, Character Study, Family Dynamics, Gen, Voice Line Lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 12:33:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14748957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orenjikitty/pseuds/orenjikitty
Summary: Fareeha thinks of her family, of her parents and their "relationship"





	A Parent's Wish

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the new interaction of:
> 
> Pharah: Mum… don’t you think it’s time you told Sam you’re alive?  
> Ana: You let me worry about what your father needs to know.

“You let me worry about what your father needs to know.”

Fareeha frowned at the response, wanting to push the topic further but Ana already left to go up to her “nest”. She knew from past experience that Ana and Sam’s…”relationship”, if it can even be called that, was a one sided affair that resulted in her. 

As far as Fareeha could tell, there really wasn’t a relationship. Ana had always had sole custody of her, ever since her birth. There were snippets of Sam in the early years but nothing past her first year. Ana had raised her alone, splitting her time raising her and her duties in Overwatch. 

She never really asked about her father, remembering only ever asking once but Ana never gave her an answer. Fareeha knew deep down she had one, but never pressed Ana further about it, content with the multitudes of “aunts” and “uncles” she had within Overwatch to keep her company.

It was out of pure luck that she even got to know her father. She remembered sitting in their apartment near the Zurich base, finishing up her homework when Ana absentmindedly put down the mail near her. It was the stamp that caught her eyes, some sports figure with a stick and skates that made her move to look at the envelope more closely. The letter was addressed to both her and Ana, something that has never happened before.

To an 8 year old, receiving a letter was a special feat. She had caught on early that the ‘letters’ she would receive from ‘Santa’ were from either Reinhardt or Jack, something to not make her feel left out while the other kids on base happily read theirs at Christmas.

But this, this was something else. 

Curiosity took over as she opened the letter hesitantly, watching to see if Ana would turn around from her phone call. Neat penmanship greeted her, looking over the letter written purely in English as she tried to make sense of it. There was the general questions of their well being, wishing them well before it got to the invitation to come to Canada. It was then did Fareeha ask her mother about the letter, Ana scolding her briefly for opening it up but couldn’t fully deny it as it was addressed to them both.

It was only then did she learn of Corporal Samuel Clifton, formerly of the Royal Canadian Air Force and served as part of the peacekeeping corps before Overwatch was made official. Her ‘birth father’, as Ana put it, was an aircraftman, a noted pilot and engineer that didn’t surprise Fareeha when she found her calling in the same field.

The letter was an invitation to both of them to celebrate his promotion within the band, something that confused Fareeha until Ana explained to her that her ‘father’ was part of the Haida Gwaii. She immersed herself in researching the band, constantly bugging Ana to know if they were going. Even though Ana was less than enthused, she couldn’t deny that this was a momentous achievement. The fact that Sam had extended an invitation to them was something she couldn’t deny. Fareeha was as much his as she was hers, even if Ana kept him away.

It was at the age of 8 did Fareeha finally meet her father. Sam met them at the Vancouver Airport, welcoming them with open arms, his smile warm and inviting compared to Ana’s stoicness. Fareeha received a moose in a mountie uniform from him, playing with the toy as her ‘parents’ spoke in hushed tones behind her as they made their way to the car.

The trip was eye opening to say the least. She had been to Canada once previously, to Montreal to attend her cousin’s wedding. But British Columbia was different. Haida Gwaii was different. It was here that Sam showed and explained to Fareeha the history of their people. Sam helped her understand her mixed heritage, answering anything he possibly can during their brief stay. The band welcomed them as well, but even at that age, she could sense some of the unspoken tension between the adults.

It was close to the end of their trip that Ana relented on letting Sam have a day with just the two of them. A hockey game, just father and daughter, that Fareeha remembered clearly. The Canucks won that game, Fareeha keeping the puck that her father managed to get for her still in her bedroom, near Ana’s old dog tags and a picture of the old Overwatch team. She remembered asking her father on the drive back to the hotel why he and Ana weren’t together, why they weren’t a ‘normal’ family, only to get a pained laugh from him. 

“Your mama isn’t ready for it. Not sure if she’ll ever be.”

The words stung, Fareeha not understanding them fully but she could tell it hurt Sam to be away from them. “You take good care of her, okay cub? I can't be there so you have to be for the both of us.”

Fareeha remembered nodding, promising to keep an eye out for Ana, the memory now making her flinch. She looked at her surroundings, the old Necropolis Ana and Jack are using as a base making her sigh. This really wasn't how she envisioned spending her days off but she'll take what she could get.

After the trip, Sam’s letters to her became more frequent, keeping his promise to write to her whenever possible. But there was still hesitation in Ana’s part on allowing him more time with her.

Fareeha only understood once she was older the reason why. Ana was solitary by nature; a by-product of her years as a sniper. She was the literal eyes of the team, ever in control of the battlefield that bled into wanting control over her personal life as well. Fareeha only understood this once she entered the military herself, coming to a realization that Sam was Ana’s weakness in a sense.

Sam, or at least the thought of letting him closer, still made Ana hesitate, made her pause and rethink everything even if she had planned everything out.  Whatever she saw in Sam initially never manifested into something more, even if Sam wanted it to be. Ana was married to her work, and once Fareeha was in her life, dedicated every possible chance to her daughter. 

Her daughter.

She was very much an Amari and not a Clifton at all.

Sure, Sam tried throughout the years. He was someone Fareeha could talk to when she was having problems with her mother that wasn’t Jack or Gabe or Reinhardt. But their relationship only really started to develop once she was in college, Fareeha enrolling to the University of British Columbia. In hindsight, she was sure it was still an act of rebellion in enrolling there, Fareeha using her time in BC to get closer to the person Ana had shut out of her life for so long. 

And Sam helped with what he could. He tried to be there for her basketball games, to help her with her studies and even gave his blessing (not that she needed it) to join the army and follow in both their footsteps. When Ana had ‘died’, it was Sam that Fareeha sought out first, delivering the news personally to him. It devastated her to tell him the news, this deception hurting her more since they have grown close, meeting at yearly for their now traditional Canucks game around Christmas.

Fareeha sighed, getting up from her seat to look around her. Ana’s sleeping bag, with the holodisk of her when she was younger, of pictures of old Overwatch, lined one of the walls of the ‘base’. Knowing her mother, there was a reason why she was still hesitating on telling Sam that she was alive. Whether Ana would ever tell her the reason for it, Fareeha didn’t know. 

But for now, Fareeha would heed her mother’s wishes. Let Ana keep up the charade of her death to continue this vigilante life she and Jack have adopted, much to her distaste.

Eventually, she’ll have to tell Sam.

And she hoped, for the sake of their ‘family’, it would be soon.

  
  



End file.
